SEOUL -- South Korea's finance ministry said Tuesday that it will take necessary steps if volatility in the financial market deepens, indicating a possible intervention in the foreign exchange market.

Bang Ki-sun, South Korean deputy minister of economy and finance, said in an emergency meeting with relevant officials that if the market volatility excessively expands, the government will take market-stabilizing measures rapidly and boldly under the prepared "contingency plan."

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HIROSHIMA, Japan -- Hiroshima, a Japanese city hit by a U.S. atomic bomb at the end of the World War II, marked the 74th anniversary of the bombing on Tuesday.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe delivered a speech during an annual memorial ceremony, stressing the importance of continuing efforts to realize "a world free of nuclear weapons."

As the only country that has experienced atomic bombings in war, Japan's duty to eliminate nuclear weapons remains unchanged even in the Reiwa era, Abe said.

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WASHINGTON -- U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday signed an executive order to freeze property of the Venezuelan government.

"All property and interests in property of the Government of Venezuela that are in the United States ... are blocked and may not be transferred, paid, exported, withdrawn, or otherwise dealt in," the executive order said.

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PYONGYANG -- The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) on Tuesday condemned the annual military exercises jointly held by the United States and South Korea that started on Monday.

The military drill is "a flagrant violation of June 12 DPRK-U.S. Joint Statement, Panmunjom Declaration and September Pyongyang Joint Declaration," a spokesperson of the DPRK Foreign Ministry was quoted by the official Korean Central News Agency as saying.

"All the U.S.-South Korea joint military exercises which have been annually conducted during the past 65 years were unexceptionally aggressive war exercises simulating the surprise and preemptive attack on the DPRK." Enditem